15 great ajax scripts for web development

Web-developers can create amazing web-applications with AJAX. Modern web-applications can be designed with enhanced user interfaces and functionality, which used to be the privilege of professional desktop-applications. Nevertheless, it’s important to know what’s possible, particularly since you can develop new ideas further, improving the quality of your web applications. This post presents 15 Great Ajax Scripts, libraries and solutions for web development which you can use in your future projects.

ClickHeat is an Ajax-powered visual heatmap of clicks on a page, showing hot and cold click zones. You can also use the heatmap generator outside ClickHeat for your own applications, using PHP and GD library.

Afrous is a JavaScript-based mash up engine which runs entirely on your web browser. No software installation is needed, no server hosting is required. You can quickly get started, create any mash-ups, run, and share them. Plenty of web services are now available and mashable under this JavaScript engine.

jQuery File Tree is a configurable, AJAX file browser plugin for jQuery. You can create a customized, fully-interactive, valid and semantic XHTML file tree with as little as one line of JavaScript code. jQuery File Tree is fully customizeable via CSS with the ability to style icons based on file extension. They have many features such as Produces valid, semantic XHTML ; Fully customizable via CSS ; Ability to style icons based on file extension ; Uses AJAX to fetch file information on the fly ; Easy to configure and implement and etc

Gestalt is a library released by MIX Online Labs that allows you to write Ruby, Python & XAML code in your (X)HTML pages. It enables you to build richer and more powerful web applications by marrying the benefits of expressive languages, modern compilers, AJAX & RIAs with the write » save » refresh development model of the web. Gestalt is a way of building more powerful web applications without changing the way you work.

Prototype UI is an open-source configurable Modal Window system. The library allows you to add a window or a dialogue. Windows can have a shadow and be scannable; modal mode is available, and there is a window manager for Web OS behavior. Prototype UI simplifies the way UI components are added to modern web applications. You can download any component separately (as a simple .js file) or download the complete library (it’s still a single .js file).

jsProgressBarHandler is a Javascript based Percentage Bar / Progress Bar, inspired upon JS-code by WebAppers and CSS-code by Bare Naked App. Next to a structural rewrite of the WebAppers code, this javascript progress bar can easily be extended and tweaked just by setting a few parameters.

Timeline is a DHTML-based AJAXy widget for visualizing time-based events. It is like Google Maps for time-based information. Below is a live example that you can play with. Pan the timeline by dragging it horizontally.

Starbox allows you to easily create all kinds of rating boxes using just one PNG image. The library is build on top of the Prototype javascript framework. For some extra effects you can add Scriptaculous as well. Check the demos below to see what Starbox is all about and read on for more information on how to customize your own Starboxes.

LiveValidation is a small open source javascript library built for giving users real-time validation information as they fill out forms. Not only that, but it serves as a sophisticated validation library for any validations you need to make elsewhere in your javascript, it is not just limited to form fields.

NicEdit is a Javascript/AJAX inline content editor to allow easy editing of web site content on the fly in the browser. NicEdit Javascript integrates into any site in seconds to make any element/div editable or convert standard textareas to rich text editing.

Sliding Tabs is a mootools 1.11 plugin which adds a pretty neat effect. It’s a clone of something seen on Panic Software’s Coda site, which in turn is very heavily inspired by a widget used in the iTunes Music Store. Similar jQuery solution.

Amberjack is a lightweight Open Source library, enabling you to create site tours. The JavaScript library is lightweight (~4K), stable, LGPL licensed, browser compatible, set up in 2 minutes & super-easy to customize

GlassBox is a compact Javascript User Interface (UI) library, which use Prototype and Script.aculo.us for some effects. With GlassBox you can build transparent border, colorful layouts and “Flash-like” effects. Take a look at the site itself: you can use the keyboard navigation: Keys 1-8 (display page), arrows left/right (previous/next page) and arrows up/down (Scroll content).

Relay is an Ajax-powered file management library. It has a multi-user access restriction, allowing the administrator to control user access to uploaded files. Features: drag-n-drop files and folders, dynamic loading file structure, upload progress bar, thumbnail view, including pdf and multiple users & accounts . You can see the demo in here and download at directly.

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Mahbub Alam Khan is a tech enthusiast who is interested in software technologies. He is the Editor and Founder of CoolAJAX Web Blog. He is a supporter of open source software. Apart from tech he loves the movies and reading books.